End in sight to Stephen’s deadlock

The ad hoc appointment row in St.Stephen’s College seems to heading for a resolution. According to sources, an additional ad hoc post — apart from the two to which appointments were made recently — has been created in the History Department to bring in a teacher with better academic credentials than that of the previous appointees. Interviews for this position will be conducted on Friday.

“This suggestion was made by protem administrator M.S. Frank on Friday. The non-Christian candidate, who is a University gold medalist and was initially bypassed for the Christian teachers, will be considered for this post. If the History HOD is able to appoint a meritorious candidate to the new post then this will definitely help dilute the resentment among faculty members, who may then not ask the Protem Administrator to revoke the Christian appointments,” said a teacher.

Frank confirmed to Hindustan Times that an additional post had come up in the History Department. “The department was in need of more teachers and the new ad hoc vacancy will help meet that need. This decision was taken today and interviews will be conducted on Friday,” he said.

Supreme council plays safe

Earlier, the Supreme Council (SC) of St. Stephen’s College washed its hands of the quota controversy. While denying that there was any policy of quota in the college, spokesperson Sunil Matthew emphasised that the SC had issued directives regarding the Christian nature of the college that were mandatory for the college to follow. However, the confusion regarding faculty quota was between Frank and faculty members only, he said.

“The Supreme Council met faculty members and the protem administrator separately since it wanted to clarify the misunderstanding that there was a quota for faculty appointments,” said Matthew, while addressing a press conference on Thursday. “The Supreme Council has said that after satisfying minimum qualifications, a Christian candidate should be given preference over a non-Christian one. But the department can also take into consideration its needs before appointing any candidate,” he said.

He said the Council had not been able to resolve the dissatisfaction simmering. “We hope that the protem administrator and the faculty members will resolve this issue soon. They could either cancel the controversial appointments or appoint all the candidates. It is up to them to decide the course of action,” said Matthew. “But the issue is beyond the preview of the Council which is not involved in the appointment of faculty,” he said.

Faculty members dismissed the Supreme Council’s statements as eyewash.